$100m of school work up for tender

State treasurer Troy Buswell said today that local businesses can tender for $100 million of maintenance and minor works in almost 800 WA schools.

The tenders are for the National School Pride Program, the first stage of the Commonwealth's 'Building the Education Revolution' program.

"I encourage Western Australian building and maintenance businesses of all sizes to get involved in this program, which will fund maintenance and minor capital works projects at all public primary and secondary schools across the State," Mr Buswell said.

"It will comprise maintenance and minor building works, with each school receiving between $50,000 and $200,000 worth of works, with the first round of projects to commence by the end of June 2009.

"I am very pleased to say that the delivery of this program is being fast-tracked by the State Government, in order to deliver the best outcomes for WA as soon as possible.

"Apart from providing much-needed improvements to many schools, the National School Pride Program will provide many opportunities for businesses of all sizes to tender for works.

"This program is not limited to major building companies. The tender process has been specially set up to allow small and medium businesses, which may not have previously undertaken work for the State Government, to apply.

"The works will be packaged in a way that encourages builders and tradespeople to apply for a volume and type of work they feel best fits them.

"I strongly encourage builders and tradespeople in regional Western Australia to apply for projects in their areas."

The Commonwealth's 'Building the Education Revolution' (BER) program would see more than $1billion invested in maintenance and new capital works for almost 800 Western Australian public schools within the next two years.

The tender released today listed 594 schools, with a further 195 schools to be added by the end of the month.

The planning of the BER program was being managed by the Department of Education and Training with procurement, project management and construction managed by the Department of Treasury and Finance's Building Management and Works (BMW) business.

Information on the tenders can be found at http://www.tenders.wa.gov.au, refer to request number BNW1009709.